Pineberries Are White Strawberries That Taste Like Pineapples

They’re not unripe strawberries. They’re not albino strawberries. They’re not strawberries that just saw a ghost. They’re pineberries: the colorless strawberry with a taste reminiscent of pineapples.

Yesterday, Reddit user Crustyjaj brought this strange fruit to the attention of the Today I Learned (TIL) community—adding, “TIL that there is a fruit that is a strawberry that tastes just like a pineapple. The name of that fruit is ‘Pineberry.'”

The pineberry may look like an extraterrestrial delicacy, but its origins seem to be quite earthly. According to NPR‘s Sasa Woodruff:

“The pineberry first appeared in the 1750s in Europe, as a cross between an American wild strawberry and a Chilean strawberry … Then, in 2003, Dutch strawberry breeder Hans de Jongh stepped in and began to transform it into a stronger, more productive plant.”

In the spring of 2012, Japan Today reported that white strawberries were a trending fruit, making them “a very popular gift items at weddings, birthdays and births.” (But if you want to try one, be warned: They can run up to 500 yen—or $4 USD—for a single berry.)

In Thailand, the white strawberry even found its way into popular beauty products:

Fun fact: The fruits of most regular strawberry plants begin with white flesh and redden as they ripen. Pineberries, however, remain white even after ripening because they lack Fragaria allergen 1, a ripening protein responsible for the color change.

Pineberries are one of many varieties of white strawberries—some of which occur naturally, while others are the result of careful cross-breeding (and still others, like “White Soul” and “White Delight” seem to exist solely for the purpose of having funny names).

So what sets pineberries apart from plain old white strawberries? Supposedly, it’s their distinct, pineapple-y taste: